By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block
One court after another has shot down the pork industry’s repeated challenges to the legality of our game-changing farm animal welfare laws. The most recent resounding win for animals comes from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which has upheld a Massachusetts law that bans the cruel confinement of egg-laying hens, breeding pigs and calves raised for veal.
By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block
At midnight last night, the U.S. federal government shut down because Congress failed to pass funding legislation for the government in the new fiscal year, which begins October 1. When a shutdown occurs, “non-essential” federal workers are furloughed, which means they are placed on temporary leave in accordance with agency contingency plans. Some workers remain to continue operations deemed “essential,” typically working without pay until the federal government reopens.
Before the U.S. Senate adjourned on August 2, members advanced several key federal funding bills with significant implications for animals. We’ve been working hard to ensure the best possible outcomes – and we want to share some of the results with you, since we’re going to need your help to lock in the important gains we’ve secured.
By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block
In his dystopian novel Animal Farm, George Orwell uses the pig, Squealer, to show how those in power use language, rhetoric and misdirection to spread propaganda, bend the truth and ensure their continued political and social dominance.
Orwell would have had a field day with the July 23 hearing at the U.S. House of Representatives’ Agriculture Committee, which was called “An Examination of the Implications of Proposition 12."
WASHINGTON (July 18, 2025)—Humane Word Action Fund, formerly called Humane Society Legislative Fund, issued the following statement ahead of a scheduled July 23 congressional hearing on California’s Proposition 12.
Update August 1, 2025: The Senate passed the FY 2026 federal funding bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration with a bipartisan vote of 87-9. The bill awaits further action in the U.S. House of Representatives.
By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block
No political stunt will bring down the cost of eggs, which is still badly affected by an avian flu epidemic that has decimated the hens in the egg industry across the U.S. and caused severe market shortages. And yet, in a lawsuit filed last night, the U.S. Department of Justice has tried to resurrect—without warrant and without real facts—a long-ago settled legal fight over California’s cage-free egg laws that have been supported by voters, farmers and advocates for animal welfare and other causes across the board.
